Evernote Windows 10 "Not Responding" & Freezes

[jianfa.tsai 8]

Hi, I hope you and your family are safe from Coronavirus. God Bless - Amen.

Unfortunately, I'm using Win 10 on HDD & 8 GB ram. 

I have combed the forum and collated the potential solutions in this thread. I like to kindly seek your help to add your solution that isn't listed below so as to help me and other people in the future. 

Thank you. 

Regards,

Jianfa Ben Tsai

Backup database, seek official customer support help before DIY

 

remove all attachments e.g. PDF, photos & videos from the note and save to cloud drive instead.

 

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (year 2017) introduced some malware prevention software called "Control flow guard" (CFG) . Once it's turned off, Evernote gets fast again!

Instruction to turn this off: https://www.tenforums.com/performance-maintenance/96792-fall-creators-update-poor-performance-lagginess-fix.html or 

https://stackoverflow.com/a/46913696/257470 (from second image) or

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/110116-en-extremely-slow-after-win-10-fall-creators-update-solved/

 

Turned off automatic Sync

 

Set automatically save edited note to 300 seconds

 

Turn off Context

 

Use offline

 

Downgraded PC's BIOS

 

Upgrade to latest version or revert back to version 4 or version 5

 

Upgraded Win 10 from Home to Pro

 

Optimized Database under the Help menu (press Help while holding the Ctrl-key) 

Fix Notebookless Notes

Fix Lost Resources

Recreate Full Text Search Index

Recreate Attributes Index

basically most of the commands on the secret Help menu

 

Removed the Web Clipper extension from Chrome

 

Using On Demand Sync may improve performance. Go to Tools - Options - Synchronization and check Enable on demand sync.  

 

Delete the shortcut to Web Clipper from C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

 

Disabled "Show Clipping Notifications"

 

Disabled Hardware Acceleration

 

Turn off "Ads" and "Status bar"

 

Go to Tools / Options / Search, and set the "Search as you type delay" to 0 seconds. You'll need to press the Enter key to initiate a saerch, but it might take some lag out of the process.

 

Do not use "EN" as a note-taking program. Type text into a word processor and, if you want copies in Evernote, copy/paste the notes from the word processor into Evernote.

 

Use the web version for everything. The web version uses entirely different software and has none of the hangups.  The downside of doing this is that you lose the additional functionality of the desktop version, including the ability to use the desktop version when you have no internet connection (you will need to use workarounds 1 and 2 when using the desktop program offline - the hangups are caused by continuous database computations in the Evernote database on your PC, which starts whenever you type in text or do a search.)  Evernote is functional as a repository, not as a data entry program and not at all as a word processor.  I don't know if the Apple version is as plagued with these programs as the Windows version.  Evernote was originally an Apple-only program.  It's hard to believe it could have taken off if it also had the hangup problems.

 

Logged into Windows from a Test account instead of my main account - this fixed it, proving that the issue must be a program or background process that's only running in the main account

Back in the main account, disabled everything in Task manager's Start-up tab - this fixed it, so then a process of elimination was required to isolate the program causing it (Sticky Password)

 

Concerning the fonts: You can choose which fonts are in use on your PC, and uninstall all the others. If you want to keep them "just in case" you can save the files containing the font information in another folder. Those in use will be found in all applications that allow for it.

 

There is an attachments folder. Other users solved their issue by deleting the content: C:\Users\{username}\Evernote\Databases\Attachments , or wherever you have your EN installed.

 

Try removing the complete installation with Revo Uninstaller (it reaches the files other uninstallers don't usually touch).  Then download and re-install the app from Evernote.com and log in with your normal user details so that the database and search indexes can be rebuilt from the server.

 

If Evernote has just updated to a newer version, and your are launching it form a pinned icon on the Window 7/10 taskbar, try un-pinning the icon, and launching Evernote from the Start menu. I have seen cases where Evernote would try to launch a defunct old version after an upgrade if an old taskbar shortcut is clicked.

 

Turn off any less used Windows or other processes.  My personal view is that things like the Windows index feature don't do much other than consume resources.  

 

An SSD is a hardware solution to the problem, but it does work well in my experience (45 k notes, 22.5 GB data base and no response issues).

 

Simply press the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run box, type dfrgui and press Enter. When the Disk Defragmenter window is shown, look for the Media type column and you can find out which drive is solid state drive (SSD), and which one is hard disk drive (HDD). How to replace your old laptop Hard Disk Drive to Solid State Drive >> Call the manufacturer helpline, give them you laptop model number and service tag, ask them the max GB SSD and the type of SSD that your laptop can take, follow instructions here >>  https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/ssd-upgrade-tutorial. I haven't tested it, but will soon. My official recommendation is to bring your old laptop to a trusted computer shop (google review on shop reputation) to pay them a small fee to do it for you. 

 

If you can't afford an SSD Hard drive just go buy one of the SanDisk Micro Flash Memory Card (see link below) or something similar to this. On most laptop you can use these Memory stick card and if you have a desktop you can find cheap adapter that can fit on your desktop PC. The Memory size of these card go from 16Gb to 64Gb and you can find some at 128Gb (Depending on the size of you .exb file). The important point here is to select one that speed up at least 45MB/s read/write or more with no Frustration. Then follow the same process I mentioned on my previous post by moving your .exb on the Memory Flash Card. I have tested it on my 2 laptops and Evernote works like a charm 🙂 SanDisk Link:

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-Frustration-Free-Packaging--SDSDX-032G-AFFP/dp/B007M54E1M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401912037&sr=8-1&keywords=sandisk

 

http://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-MicroMate-Memory-Reader-SDDR-113/dp/B000YBH4YU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1401916980&sr=1-1&keywords=sandisk+adapter+usb

 

Get CCleaner from Piriform, it's a FREE registry, check \ fix.  You can use any registry program you want provided it can fix the problems it finds.

 

I have seen cases where the following can affect the software behavior:

Large and/or corrupt attachments

Large (>10K words) Notes

Large account sizes (> 30K Notes)

Special/unusually characters in the Note

 

*to run Evernote in debug mode, type: evernote.exe/debugmenu in the Run Dialog in Windows

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The process to fix the freezing can be summarized as follows:

Use windows firewall to block evernote.exe whenever you're interacting with the evernote windows client

Disable the windows firewall rule when your done interacting so the client can sync.

 

The details on the process:

 

First create a windows firewall rule

Create a windows firewall rule: Windows Firewall/Advanced Settings/Outbound Rules/New Rule.

Type of rule = Program

Program path = the path to your evernote.exe file (such as C:\Users\User1\AppData\Local\Apps\Evernote\Evernote\Evernote.exe)

Then choose "Block the connection."

When does this rule apply? Check all three options.

Then for the name, make sure to name it "Block Evernote."  This gives you a firewall rule which can be turned on and off by batch files

 

Next create a file named "Block Evernote.bat" which looks like this:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule name="Block Evernote" new enable=yes

timeout 7200

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule name="Block Evernote" new enable=no

This batch file will enable the blocking, then wait for 2 hrs (7200 seconds), then disable the blocking.  It will leave a command window open during the countdown, which will remind you that the blocking is enabled, and allow you to press any key while in that window to skip the countdown and disable the blocking (such as when you're done working in the client)

 

When running the batch file, you don't want to click itself, but rather you want to create a shortcut which runs with administrative privileges, and use that to activate the batch file.

 

Thus next you create a shortcut to this batch file (in order to provide administrator privileges).  Once the shortcut is created, you need to right-click the shortcut, go to Properties, click Advanced, and Run as Administrator checkbox (if you skip this step it won't work, because netsh needs admin privileges).

 

Now double-click this shortcut to stop the window's client from talking to the servers, and it will magically make the windows client usable again (at least it did for me).  Pressing any key inside the command window which opens will again allow the client to connect to the servers and synchronize   If you forget to press a key, the command window will count down and re-enable the client's communication after the 7200 seconds (or whatever number you choose for that value).

 

One final optional step I used to make activating blocking a little more convenient was to pin the shortcut to the taskbar.  This can be done as follows:

Navigate to your shortcut you created, hold the shift key on your keyboard while right-clicking the shortcut, and select "Copy as Path".  (This option will only show up while shift-right-clicking.)  This copies the path of the shortcut to the clipboard.

Go to the start menu, start typing "cmd" and when "Command Prompt" comes up, click it to open a command prompt window.

That command prompt window should show up on you screen, with an icon on your task bar

While the command window is still open, right-click the command prompt icon on the taskbar and select "Pin to Taskbar."

Close the command prompt

When the command prompt is closed, shift-right-click the command prompt icon on the taskbar and select "Properties"

In the properties dialog box, on the "Shortcut" tab, in the "Target" field, type "explorer.exe" and then paste the contents of the clipboard

Thus the target box should look something like: explorer.exe "C:\Users\User1\Desktop\Block Evernote.bat - Shortcut.lnk"

Hit "OK" to close the dialog box

Now every time you want to activate the blocking so you can use the windows client, you need only click that command window icon on the taskbar, and then the "Yes" button which pops up when windows asks you if this program can make changes to your computer.

(Note: This process is a little annoying because each time you click the shortcut on the taskbar you need to still click the "Yes" button on the UAC prompt which comes up next.  For more tech savy users, you could eliminate this step by creating a task in task scheduler which runs with highest privileges and runs your batch file (but has no trigger).  Then in the "Target" field in your taskbar shortcut you put something like C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /tn "Block Evernote" where "Block Evernote" is the name of the task scheduler task which runs the batch file.  This eliminates the UAC prompt and starts the blocking as soon as you click the shortcut on the taskbar.  This also eliminates the need for the shortcut to the batch file with admin privileges; you only need the original batch file.)

 

This is a lot of messing around, but totally worth it to me to be able to use the client again.

 

Hope this is useful for someone else.  Cheers.

 

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Sign all the way out of EN, File - Sign out yourusername.  Then start EN and select Evernote - Options in the upper left corner.  Change the data base location to what you want there.  Once signed in EN will build the data base at that location from the server, so give it time depending upon how many notes you have.  Again, if you have any local notebooks, export them so they can be imported after the download is complete.

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run a chkdsk /f on your PC. It will take time, but will ensure that the issue isn't hardware.

 

[gazumped 11,666]

Hi.  That's an amazing compilation of fixes.  Can I ask what you intend to do with it?  It would take an awful long time to work through it fix by fix,  and as one list it's probably frightening for many users to even get started.  I know the Forum's question-and-suggestion process can take some time to get through,  but we can often work out what particular fix is most likely to help without going through a lot of possible changes in hopes that things will improve...

[PinkElephant 8,115]

The posting is an impressive reminder of all the possibilities how to speed up a lagging Windows installation. Unfortunately Windows will collect all sort of residue in the systems caves, that tend to make things sticky. Most actions above represent not harm, but some can cause damage to the installation - use with care.

The golden bullet is in fact to install a SSD instead of the current system drive. Especially on older laptops the drive can usually be exchanged (on new ones, it is often soldered to the main board). This speeds everything up, not only EN. An investment of 100$ can easily give a vintage PC or laptop another 5 years of productive usage.

If I had not done it already, I would go for it ! If you do a fresh install of Windows then, many issues that took the old PC down will be gone for good.

[gazumped 11,666]

@PinkElephant reminds me of an excellent point - if a device has used up 90% of its hard drive storage, has a lot of software installed, is attempting to start up with dozens of 'startup' apps activated, is running other software that creates disk activity or uses up memory storage, has a bad internet connection,  lots of other users on the same network, or is torrent streaming in the background... in short if a device is busy or badly maintained,  it will run slow.  The first step in any fix ought to be a housekeeping check to make sure the system is healthy!!

[mikea144 36]

I tried all sorts of things on several Windows machines.  It was very frustrating.  The only way I could fix this and make it stick was with an SSD.  And an SSD installed in on old machine really does speed it up tremendously. 

I don't know why Evernote doesn't fix their apps (on Windows, and it's much worse on Android) to correct this.  This is a solvable design problem.  If they'd stop adding  unneeded features and actually focus on fixing major flaws they would have a professional and credible product that didn't require their users go crazy trying to make it work right. 

It's not hard to install an SSD as long as your laptop is designed to easily replace the disk.  I did it on a laptop that required me to totally disassemble it but it was still worth it.  You can do it in a couple of hours, it's not hard, and there are plenty of guides on the web to show you how to do it.  Your can use Macrium Reflect Free to clone your current HDD so absolutely nothing changes except for the speed.  My suggestion is that you give it a try.

[Kampp 0]

Are there any solutions for this?

Ever since the change to Evernote 10 my app has stalled multiple times a day. It seems to be mostly when going back to the program after having used other programs for a few minutes.

My specs:

• ONLY 1000 notes in Evernote (primarily only text)
• Windows 10
• i7 CPU
• 16 Gb RAM
• SSD

The "optimize" button many are talking about seems to be gone.

This problem should simply not happen and should be fixed as priority one. I can read online about with the same issues.

[StefanS 7]

On 4/27/2021 at 10:52 AM, Kampp said:

Are there any solutions for this?

Ever since the change to Evernote 10 my app has stalled multiple times a day. It seems to be mostly when going back to the program after having used other programs for a few minutes.

My specs:

• ONLY 1000 notes in Evernote (primarily only text)
• Windows 10
• i7 CPU
• 16 Gb RAM
• SSD

The "optimize" button many are talking about seems to be gone.

This problem should simply not happen and should be fixed as priority one. I can read online about with the same issues.

Same things happen to me. Lot of RAM, SSD, no other programs have stalled only Evernote. Evernote legacy look like Porsche compare to new supposedly better version. It's not. Very frustrating.